Friday, December 5, 2008

Static Stretching And Why You Need To Stretch

By Gina Gardi

Most of today's society is plagued with muscular imbalances due to repetitive patterns of movement which place undue stress on the body. That includes sitting or standing for long periods, and repeating the same movements overtime. Muscular imbalance are a result of poor movement of the joints, inappropriate muscles taking over the function of the primary muscles, and decreased nueromuscular control. Static stretching is a great way to correct this.

Weather you are active or not, young or old, you can benefit from static stretching. Stretching is a great way to improve the range of motion around a joint, improve neuromuscular control, and improve the function of muscles. You can perform them anywhere and without any equipment.

You can perform static stretching before and after workouts. Before a workout stretching will help prepare your muscles for exercise and prevent injury. After exercise it helps to recover your muscles, increases flexibility which improves joint range of motion, and it also helps to reduce muscle soreness.

If you lead a sedentary lifestyle or you don't exercise, it is even more important that you perform static stretching and flexibility exercises. Only stretch to a point of slight tension and hold the stretch for at least 30 seconds.

Static, Active, Dynamic, and SMR with a foam roll are a few different forms of flexibility training. The most common is static stretching. Static stretches require that you hold a stretch for a minimum of 20 to 30 seconds. It helps to improve flexibility by lengthening the muscles being stretched. Static stretches are best for correcting muscular imbalances and is the best place to start.

Self myofacial release is also a form of corrective stretching. By applying pressure to "knots" or sensitive areas of a muscle, this technique allows bundled muscle fibers to be straightened and inline with the direction of the muscle, This in turn leads to lengthening of the muscles. It's a great way to restore your body to it's optimal level of functioning. This can be done by rolling specific muscles on a foam roll. SMR and static stretching can be combined in your warm-ups.

Two other forms of flexibility training include Active and Dynamic stretching. These types of stretches should be performed as a warm up and should only be performed if you have no muscle imbalances. Perform static stretching after your workouts to cool down.

Improving your flexibility and performing some static stretching exercises will not only feel great but will improve your posture, reduce your risk of injury, relieve pain, counteract aging, improve muscle recovery after workouts and reduce stress. - 16004

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